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Send your Invio invoices straight into Xero

Category Integrations Setup About 10 minutes By Invio
Contents

Connect your Xero organisation once and the invoices you send from Invio are copied into it, with their payments, so you do not have to key them twice. You stay in charge: you choose the organisation, the accounts and the tax rates, and nothing is sent until you finish the setup.

What it does

Invio keeps sending your invoices to your clients, as it always did. The sync then puts a copy in your Xero.

Invoices
Each invoice you send, and a later change to it, is created or updated in Xero with its number, dates, lines, amounts and tax.
Payments
Payments you record against those invoices are added in Xero, when you leave Record payments in Xero on. A payment you remove in Invio is removed in Xero, unless it has been reconciled there.
Voids
An invoice you void in Invio is voided in Xero too, when Xero holds no payment against it. If it does, Invio tells you what is left to do there.
Clients
Your clients become Xero contacts. Invio looks for the contact you already have first and links to it, and only makes a new one when there is none.

Connect Xero

You sign in on Xero's own page. Invio never sees your Xero password.

1

Open Settings

Go to Settings and open the Xero sync tab.

2

Press Connect Xero

Xero asks you to sign in and to allow Invio to create invoices, payments and contacts, and to read your accounts and tax rates. Allow it for the organisation you want.

3

Choose the organisation

If you allowed more than one organisation, choose the one this business should sync to. The others are disconnected from Invio again. One Invio business syncs to one Xero organisation.

Choose your settings

Nothing is guessed. You pick from your own Xero lists.

Sales account
The Xero account your invoice lines are posted to.
Tax rates
The Xero tax rate for taxable sales, and one for sales with no tax or zero-rated sales if you have them.
Where payments go
The Xero bank account that payments are added to. Card payments can go to a clearing account of your choice. If you have more than one Xero bank account, you choose which Invio bank account maps to which.
Post invoices as
Approved (awaiting payment) or Draft, if you would rather approve them in Xero yourself. Xero only takes a payment on an approved invoice, so payments wait for you to approve a draft.
Invoice number prefix
Optional. A prefix keeps Invio's numbers apart from numbers already used in Xero.

The sync starts when the settings are complete. Invoices you send from that moment are copied.

Match your clients

So a client does not end up in Xero twice.

Before Invio creates a contact it looks in Xero for one that already exists, by the email address and the name. When it is sure, it links to it. When it is not sure, for example because two contacts share a name, it does not guess: the invoice waits and Match your clients shows you the candidates so you can pick one, create a new contact, or leave that client out of the sync. A contact you link yourself is never edited by Invio.

What is sent, and when

In the background, within a few minutes of the action.

When
When you send an invoice, record or remove a payment, or void an invoice, the change is queued and reaches Xero within a few minutes. If Xero is busy, Invio waits and carries on by itself.
What stays out
Quotes, reminders and expenses are not sent. If you use the support worker module, reference lines such as an NDIS number are left out of what goes to Xero.
The invoice link
Each invoice in Xero carries a link back to its page in Invio. Anyone with access to that Xero organisation can open it.
Seeing it
The Xero sync tab shows what has reached Xero, what is waiting, and what needs you. Each invoice in your list shows a small Xero label.

Invoices from before you connected

Left alone on purpose, and yours to send if you want them in Xero.

Your accountant may already have your older invoices in Xero, and putting an invoice in twice counts its income and tax twice. So Invio sends only what you send after you connect. If you do want the open ones in Xero, the Xero sync tab shows them: how many, what is still owed, which ones, and which are part paid. Press Check Xero to see which numbers Xero already has, then send the list.

Exactly the list you saw
Invio sends the list you were shown. If an invoice was paid or added in the meantime, nothing is sent and you review the new list.
Never twice
Before it creates each invoice, Invio looks for the same number in Xero, and for an invoice with the same customer, day and total under another number. An invoice Xero already has is skipped and listed for you.
Part payments go with them
If an open invoice has a part payment recorded, that payment is added to it in Xero too (with Record payments in Xero on), so Xero shows the same amount owed.
Locked periods
An invoice dated in a period you have locked in Xero would be refused, so it is not on the list. Enter it in Xero yourself, or change the lock date there.
Steady, not all at once
They go in the background, a few at a time, at a pace that leaves room for the invoices you send meanwhile. A long list can take a few hours.

When something needs attention

One plain sentence and one button each.

If Xero refuses an item, or Invio cannot tell which contact a client is, the item appears under Needs attention with what Xero said and what to do: Retry once you have fixed the cause, or mark it as handled if you dealt with it in Xero yourself. If the sync cannot go on at all, for example because Xero asked you to sign in again, a banner says so and Invio emails you once.

Disconnect

You can stop at any time.

Press Disconnect Xero in the Xero sync tab. Invio stops sending, asks Xero to remove its connection and deletes the stored access at once. Nothing already in Xero is changed or deleted. Invio keeps its record of what was sent, so connecting the same organisation again carries on without making duplicates. If you ever delete your Invio account, press Disconnect first so the connection is removed in Xero as well.

Questions about the Xero sync

Does Invio change or delete anything in my Xero books on its own?
No. It creates and updates what you send from Invio, and it voids an invoice in Xero or removes a payment there only because you voided the invoice or removed the payment in Invio. Pressing Disconnect asks Xero to remove Invio's connection and changes nothing that is already in Xero.
Why are my older invoices not in Xero?
Invoices you sent before you connected are left alone on purpose: your accountant may already have them, and putting the same invoice in twice counts the income and the tax twice. If you want them in Xero, the Xero sync card shows you the open ones, asks Xero which it already has, and sends the list you choose.
What if my accountant already keyed an invoice in Xero?
When you send older invoices, Invio looks for the same invoice number in Xero first, and for an invoice with the same customer, day and total under another number. An invoice Xero already has is skipped and listed for you; it is never created twice.
What if Xero refuses something?
Xero can refuse an item, for example because the period is locked or the number is already used. The sync log says what Xero said, in plain words, and the item waits for you. Press Retry once you have fixed the cause. Invio does not keep trying for ever.
Is the sync endorsed by Xero?
No. Invio is an independent product that connects to Xero through the interface Xero publishes. It is not endorsed by, or affiliated with, Xero.

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Send your Invio invoices straight into Xero | Invio